Skip to main content
Texas Standards

5th Grade ELA TEKS

All 63 Texas English language arts standards for 5th grade, each explained in plain English. The official wording is one click away under each one.

63 standards

Developing and sustaining foundational language skills: listening, speaking, discussion, and thinking--oral language

4 standards
The student develops oral language through listening, speaking, and discussion.
5.1(A)
Listen carefully to understand both spoken words and body language, ask questions that matter, and add comments that move the discussion forward.
Official wording
listen actively to interpret verbal and non-verbal messages, ask relevant questions, and make pertinent comments;
5.1(B)
Carry out, restate and explain aloud directions that involve multiple actions, like the procedure for a science lab.
Official wording
follow, restate, and give oral instructions that include multiple action steps;
5.1(C)
Give a well-organized talk with eye contact, a good pace and volume, clear pronunciation, natural gestures and correct grammar.
Official wording
give an organized presentation employing eye contact, speaking rate, volume, enunciation, natural gestures, and conventions of language to communicate ideas effectively; and
5.1(D)
Collaborate with classmates on a plan that gives each person a share of the work, like roles for a group science project.
Official wording
work collaboratively with others to develop a plan of shared responsibilities.

Developing and sustaining foundational language skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking--beginning reading and writing

3 standards
The student develops word structure knowledge through phonological awareness, print concepts, phonics, and morphology to communicate, decode, and spell.
5.2(A)
Decode words whose sounds shift, like act to action, plus longer words by syllable type and break, words changed by prefixes and suffixes, and sight words.
Official wording
demonstrate and apply phonetic knowledge by:idecoding words with consonant changes, including /t/ to /sh/ such as in select and selection and /k/ to /sh/ such as music and musician;iidecoding multisyllabic words with closed syllables; open syllables; VCe syllable; vowel teams, including digraphs and diphthongs; r-controlled syllables; and final stable syllables;iiidecoding words using advanced knowledge of syllable division patterns;ivdecoding words using advanced knowledge of the influence of prefixes and suffixes on base words; andvidentifying and reading high-frequency words from a research-based list;
5.2(B)
Spell words whose consonant sounds change, like magic and magician, plus longer words by syllable type and break, and words with prefixes and suffixes.
Official wording
demonstrate and apply spelling knowledge by:ispelling multisyllabic words with closed syllables; open syllables; VCe syllables; vowel teams, including digraphs and diphthongs; r-controlled syllables; and final stable syllables;iispelling words with consonant changes, including /t/ to /sh/ such as in select and selection and /k/ to /sh/ such as music and musician;iiispelling multisyllabic words with multiple sound-spelling patterns;ivspelling words using advanced knowledge of syllable division patterns;vspelling words using knowledge of prefixes; andvispelling words using knowledge of suffixes, including how they can change base words such as dropping e, changing y to i, and doubling final consonants; and
5.2(C)
Write neatly in cursive so others can read it easily.
Official wording
write legibly in cursive.

Developing and sustaining foundational language skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking--vocabulary

4 standards
The student uses newly acquired vocabulary expressively.
5.3(A)
Use print or online references to find a word's meaning, syllables, pronunciation and where the word came from, like Latin or Greek.
Official wording
use print or digital resources to determine meaning, syllabication, pronunciation, and word origin;
5.3(B)
Use clues in and beyond a sentence to choose the meaning that fits for an unfamiliar or multiple-meaning word, like cell in a science text.
Official wording
use context within and beyond a sentence to determine the relevant meaning of unfamiliar words or multiple-meaning words;
5.3(C)
Figure out and use words with affixes like trans-, super-, -ive and -logy and roots like geo and photo, such as transport or geology.
Official wording
identify the meaning of and use words with affixes such as trans-, super-, -ive, and -logy and roots such as geo and photo; and
5.3(D)
Recognize, use and explain old sayings called adages and plays on words called puns, like the early bird catches the worm.
Official wording
identify, use, and explain the meaning of adages and puns.

Developing and sustaining foundational language skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking--fluency

1 standard
The student reads grade-level text with fluency and comprehension.
5.4
Read 5th-grade texts with fluency, keeping a steady pace, getting the words right and using expression that brings out the meaning.
Official wording
use appropriate fluency (rate, accuracy, and prosody) when reading grade-level text.

Developing and sustaining foundational language skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking--self-sustained reading

1 standard
The student reads grade-appropriate texts independently.
5.5
Choose your own reading, such as a novel or a nonfiction series, and stay with it independently for long, uninterrupted stretches.
Official wording
self-select text and read independently for a sustained period of time.

Comprehension skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts

9 standards
The student uses metacognitive skills to both develop and deepen comprehension of increasingly complex texts.
5.6(A)
Know your reason for reading each text, whether a teacher assigned it or you picked it, like gathering facts for a report or reading for fun.
Official wording
establish purpose for reading assigned and self-selected texts;
5.6(B)
Form your own questions as you start, read and finish a text to understand it more fully and learn new facts, like what caused a historical event.
Official wording
generate questions about text before, during, and after reading to deepen understanding and gain information;
5.6(C)
Make predictions from clues like headings, captions, genre traits and text structure, then test them against the text and change them when needed.
Official wording
make and correct or confirm predictions using text features, characteristics of genre, and structures;
5.6(D)
Build detailed mental pictures from a text's descriptions to grasp it more fully, like visualizing a battle scene or a cell dividing.
Official wording
create mental images to deepen understanding;
5.6(E)
Connect ideas in a text to your own experiences, to other texts you know and to events in society, like a novel about fairness and the news.
Official wording
make connections to personal experiences, ideas in other texts, and society;
5.6(F)
Draw conclusions about what a text implies and support them with evidence, like inferring a character's motive from her actions.
Official wording
make inferences and use evidence to support understanding;
5.6(G)
Judge which details in a text matter most to find its key ideas, like separating a main finding from a side example.
Official wording
evaluate details read to determine key ideas;
5.6(H)
Pull together facts and ideas from across a reading to form new conclusions, like seeing how several causes led to an event.
Official wording
synthesize information to create new understanding; and
5.6(I)
Keep track of how well you understand a text and repair confusion with strategies like rereading, recalling what you know, questioning or annotating.
Official wording
monitor comprehension and make adjustments such as re-reading, using background knowledge, asking questions, and annotating when understanding breaks down.

Response skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts

7 standards
The student responds to an increasingly challenging variety of sources that are read, heard, or viewed.
5.7(A)
Share how a variety of sources, like a novel you chose, a podcast or a news article, connect to your own life.
Official wording
describe personal connections to a variety of sources, including self-selected texts;
5.7(B)
Write responses that prove you understood a text, and show how ideas in different sources are alike and different, like a novel and a biography.
Official wording
write responses that demonstrate understanding of texts, including comparing and contrasting ideas across a variety of sources;
5.7(C)
Use specific evidence, such as quotations or facts, to back up a reasonable response to what you read.
Official wording
use text evidence to support an appropriate response;
5.7(D)
Sum up, retell or paraphrase a chapter or article so its meaning stays true and its ideas follow a logical sequence.
Official wording
retell, paraphrase, or summarize texts in ways that maintain meaning and logical order;
5.7(E)
Dig into sources by taking notes, annotating passages, freewriting about ideas or illustrating key scenes.
Official wording
interact with sources in meaningful ways such as notetaking, annotating, freewriting, or illustrating;
5.7(F)
Respond to reading with newly learned words where they fit, like describing a plan as ambitious or a claim as convincing.
Official wording
respond using newly acquired vocabulary as appropriate; and
5.7(G)
Talk through the specific ideas that carry a text's meaning, like a turning point in a story or a key fact in an article.
Official wording
discuss specific ideas in the text that are important to the meaning.

Multiple genres: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts--literary elements

4 standards
The student recognizes and analyzes literary elements within and across increasingly complex traditional, contemporary, classical, and diverse literary texts.
5.8(A)
Find more than one theme in a single text and support each with evidence, like courage and loyalty in the same novel.
Official wording
infer multiple themes within a text using text evidence;
5.8(B)
Analyze how characters relate to one another and the conflicts between them, like rivals who become teammates.
Official wording
analyze the relationships of and conflicts among the characters;
5.8(C)
Trace how tension builds through the rising action, peaks at the climax and eases in the falling action and resolution, like in a survival novel.
Official wording
analyze plot elements, including rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution; and
5.8(D)
Analyze how a historical or cultural setting drives the events of a plot, like a story set on the Underground Railroad.
Official wording
analyze the influence of the setting, including historical and cultural settings, on the plot.

Multiple genres: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts--genres

6 standards
The student recognizes and analyzes genre-specific characteristics, structures, and purposes within and across increasingly complex traditional, contemporary, classical, and diverse texts.
5.9(A)
Explain the defining features of classic genres like tall tales, myths, legends, fables and folktales, such as how a myth explains something in nature.
Official wording
demonstrate knowledge of distinguishing characteristics of well-known children's literature such as folktales, fables, legends, myths, and tall tales;
5.9(B)
Explain sound devices and figurative language in different types of poems, and tell the poet apart from the voice speaking in the poem.
Official wording
explain the use of sound devices and figurative language and distinguish between the poet and the speaker in poems across a variety of poetic forms;
5.9(C)
Explain how a script is put together, from acts and scenes to the name labels before each line and the stage directions for actors.
Official wording
explain structure in drama such as character tags, acts, scenes, and stage directions;
5.9(D)
Recognize the central idea and evidence in nonfiction, features like sidebars, insets and timelines, and patterns like order of importance or logical order.
Official wording
recognize characteristics and structures of informational text, including:ithe central idea with supporting evidence;iifeatures such as insets, timelines, and sidebars to support understanding; andiiiorganizational patterns such as logical order and order of importance;
5.9(E)
Identify the claim in an argument, explain how facts are used to support or challenge a position, and name the audience the author has in mind.
Official wording
recognize characteristics and structures of argumentative text by:iidentifying the claim;iiexplaining how the author has used facts for or against an argument; andiiiidentifying the intended audience or reader; and
5.9(F)
Identify what makes multimodal and digital texts work, like an online article that pairs text with interactive maps and audio.
Official wording
recognize characteristics of multimodal and digital texts.

Author's purpose and craft: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts

7 standards
The student uses critical inquiry to analyze the authors' choices and how they influence and communicate meaning within a variety of texts. The student analyzes and applies author's craft purposefully in order to develop his or her own products and performances.
5.10(A)
Explain an author's reason for writing and the main message behind a text, like persuading readers to protect wetlands.
Official wording
explain the author's purpose and message within a text;
5.10(B)
Analyze how the organization of a text, like problem and solution, helps the author achieve their purpose.
Official wording
analyze how the use of text structure contributes to the author's purpose;
5.10(C)
Analyze how print and graphic elements, such as italics, sidebars, photos and charts, help an author reach specific goals.
Official wording
analyze the author's use of print and graphic features to achieve specific purposes;
5.10(D)
Describe what an author gains from vivid images, plain and figurative wording like similes and metaphors, and sound effects such as rhyme or repetition.
Official wording
describe how the author's use of imagery, literal and figurative language such as simile and metaphor, and sound devices achieves specific purposes;
5.10(E)
Recognize and make sense of literary devices, like whether a story is narrated in first person by a character or in third person by an outsider.
Official wording
identify and understand the use of literary devices, including first- or third-person point of view;
5.10(F)
Examine how an author's language, such as word choice and tone, creates a recognizable voice in the writing.
Official wording
examine how the author's use of language contributes to voice; and
5.10(G)
Explain why an author uses hyperbole, stereotypes and anecdotes, like a short personal story that makes an argument feel real.
Official wording
explain the purpose of hyperbole, stereotyping, and anecdote.

Composition: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts--writing process

5 standards
The student uses the writing process recursively to compose multiple texts that are legible and uses appropriate conventions.
5.11(A)
Plan writing by matching a genre to the topic, purpose and readers, then gathering ideas through brainstorming, freewriting or mapping.
Official wording
plan a first draft by selecting a genre for a particular topic, purpose, and audience using a range of strategies such as brainstorming, freewriting, and mapping;
5.11(B)
Build a draft into a well-organized piece with an introduction, transitions and an ending, and a thoughtful idea backed by specific facts.
Official wording
develop drafts into a focused, structured, and coherent piece of writing by:iorganizing with purposeful structure, including an introduction, transitions, and a conclusion; andiideveloping an engaging idea reflecting depth of thought with specific facts and details;
5.11(C)
Strengthen sentences and word choice in a draft by adding detail, deleting extras, combining short sentences and reordering ideas for clarity.
Official wording
revise drafts to improve sentence structure and word choice by adding, deleting, combining, and rearranging ideas for coherence and clarity;
5.11(D)
Edit for complex sentences, collective nouns, conjunctive adverbs, indefinite pronouns, capitals for acronyms, italics for titles, commas and spelling.
Official wording
edit drafts using standard English conventions, including:icomplete simple and compound sentences with subject-verb agreement and avoidance of splices, run-ons, and fragments;iipast tense of irregular verbs;iiicollective nouns;ivadjectives, including their comparative and superlative forms;vconjunctive adverbs;viprepositions and prepositional phrases and their influence on subject-verb agreement;viipronouns, including indefinite;viiisubordinating conjunctions to form complex sentences;ixcapitalization of abbreviations, initials, acronyms, and organizations;xitalics and underlining for titles and emphasis and punctuation marks, including quotation marks in dialogue and commas in compound and complex sentences; andxicorrect spelling of words with grade-appropriate orthographic patterns and rules and high-frequency words; and
5.11(E)
Present final pieces to suitable readers, such as submitting an essay to a school magazine or sharing a slideshow with families.
Official wording
publish written work for appropriate audiences.

Composition: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts--genres

4 standards
The student uses genre characteristics and craft to compose multiple texts that are meaningful.
5.12(A)
Write personal narratives, made-up stories and poems that use each genre's features and craft, like dialogue in a story or imagery in a poem.
Official wording
compose literary texts such as personal narratives, fiction, and poetry using genre characteristics and craft;
5.12(B)
Compose short informational pieces with a strong central idea, using nonfiction features and techniques like definitions, examples and subheadings.
Official wording
compose informational texts, including brief compositions that convey information about a topic, using a clear central idea and genre characteristics and craft;
5.12(C)
Compose opinion essays and other argumentative pieces with a clear claim and convincing reasons, using the genre's features and craft.
Official wording
compose argumentative texts, including opinion essays, using genre characteristics and craft; and
5.12(D)
Compose a formal letter or email that asks someone for information, like writing to a city office about recycling rules.
Official wording
compose correspondence that requests information.

Inquiry and research: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts

8 standards
The student engages in both short-term and sustained recursive inquiry processes for a variety of purposes.
5.13(A)
Generate research questions on a topic and narrow them until they are clear, like moving from storms to how hurricanes form.
Official wording
generate and clarify questions on a topic for formal and informal inquiry;
5.13(B)
Build a step-by-step research plan and follow it with adult guidance, from choosing sources to setting deadlines.
Official wording
develop and follow a research plan with adult assistance;
5.13(C)
Identify and collect information relevant to a research topic from varied sources, such as databases, articles and interviews.
Official wording
identify and gather relevant information from a variety of sources;
5.13(D)
Understand how believable primary and secondary sources are, like weighing an eyewitness letter against a website with no author.
Official wording
understand credibility of primary and secondary sources;
5.13(E)
Demonstrate what you learned from your research, like summarizing findings or explaining how facts connect.
Official wording
demonstrate understanding of information gathered;
5.13(F)
Tell paraphrasing apart from plagiarism when using sources, like rewriting a fact in new words and crediting it rather than copying a sentence.
Official wording
differentiate between paraphrasing and plagiarism when using source materials;
5.13(G)
Put together a bibliography of every source consulted, listing details such as author, title, publisher and date.
Official wording
develop a bibliography; and
5.13(H)
Choose a good way to present research, whether a written paper, a talk or a multimedia project, and share the results.
Official wording
use an appropriate mode of delivery, whether written, oral, or multimodal, to present results.

The official Texas documents

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for English Language Arts and Reading, 19 Texas Administrative Code Chapter 110, adopted by the Texas State Board of Education.

The plain-English lines are EMStudio's own explanations, shown beside the official wording. They are not part of the standards.